[Info-vax] OT(?): Linux: developed by corporates. *NOT* developed by unpaid volunteers.

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2015-03-29 04:08:32 +0000, David Froble said:

> Linux started as something that was free, and if anyone wants to play 
> in that sandbox, it's my impression that they cannot charge for the OS. 
> Right?  So, from that perspective, it's free.

That depends on the license involved.

The Linux kernel uses GPLv2.  The Linux userland uses a mix of 
licenses, usually including GPLv2 and GPLv3.  GPLv2 does allow folks to 
charge for the product and to charge for product support and there can 
be proprietary extensions and/or logos involved in some packages, 
though the vendors are required to offer the source code, if the source 
code is not provided with the purchase.  For a commercial example of 
such commercial software, RedHat Enterprise Linux.  Dual licenses are 
also in use in some products, where the vendor releases some or all of 
of the source code under GPLv2 or GPLv3, and also either releases or 
offers to release equivalent or differing software distributions and 
other packaging configurations under a different license.

Apache does not use GPL, however.  Apache uses the Apache license.

A third license is the MIT/BSD-style license, and there are many other 
open-source licenses and variations around.

> But, the discussion was about web servers, I thought, and Apache seems 
> to be the normal choice of many.

Nginx and some other web servers are also used widely.  
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_server_software>

> I'll ask, if Apache wasn't free, do you think there might be more 
> competitors for that market?  I do.  It's the "free" that stifles 
> competition.  Who is going to spend money to develop a product to 
> compete with a free product?  Would you?

Microsoft IIS is in use at a number of sites, as are some other 
commercial options.

It's also common to see competition among other "free" packages.  Nginx 
was launched because of issues with Apache, for instance.

In a manner of consideration, the open-source versions of the various 
packages are the trial versions.  There's also not much of a market for 
piracy of these open-source versions, but then details such as software 
piracy and ensuring distribution integrity are fodder for other 
discussions.

But yes, the advent of open source certainly changes the market for web 
servers, compilers, operating systems and other products, whether in 
terms of the obvious pricing floor, or the expectations of 
compatibility, the user interfaces, or other details.  There are still 
cases — such as the management front-end and user interfaces that Apple 
provides for Apache and other open source, or the HP OneView tools — 
where there can be profits with open-source.




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